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Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland
@virtualtreasury.bsky.social
1.9K followers 560 following 220 posts
www.virtualtreasury.ie
An All-Island & International Legacy from Decade of Centenaries
Core partners: National Archives Ireland, The National Archives UK, Public Record Office Northern Ireland, Irish Manuscripts Commission, Library Trinity College Dublin
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His copy is now the only surviving detailed census data from pre-1841 Ireland. That’s what we call a backup!
🔗 virtualtreasury.ie/item/VRTI-M-1-4

Want to see more stories like this?
Join us for next week's VRTI Roadshow & the launch of Prof Keith Busby’s new book The Statute of Kilkenny (IMC)
NLI MS 720/34 — Down Survey Map of Inistioge (1787)
November 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
☁️ Before cloud storage, there was… Thomas Innes of Inistioge. In 1831 he hand-copied the entire parish census into an old enumerator’s notebook, for no clear reason. Good thing he did: the original was destroyed in 1922.
VRTI M 1/4 — Census of the population of the estates of William Tighe esquire in the county of Kilkenny, taken in 1831, and copied from the government returns [Inistioge] VRTI M 1/4 — Census of the population of the estates of William Tighe esquire in the county of Kilkenny, taken in 1831, and copied from the government returns [Inistioge]
November 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomenInRebellion We hope you've enjoyed this series (curated by our colleague @timvrti.bsky.social)! These voices — from courtrooms, safehouses, prison cells, and family rooms — reveal women as actors, witnesses, and narrators in the 1798 Rebellion.
‘A map of Ireland to elucidate the Rebellion of 1798’, from Sir Richard Musgrave, Memoirs of the Different Rebellions in Ireland (1801)
November 20, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
⚜️ Hear ye, hear ye!

In the year of our Lord 1392, James Butler, Earl of Ormond, did release and quitclaim his noble castle of Kilkenny.

In the year of our Lord 2025, the VRTI returns to Kilkenny to reveal this very record — and to launch Professor Keith Busby’s The Statute of Kilkenny (IMC).
NLI Deeds Ormond D 1332 - Irish letters patent: INSPEXIMUS of release and quitclaim given under seal of earl of Ormond Image of Kilkenny Castle behind a bed of red flowers. Wikimedia Commons, Jonjobaker, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
November 17, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomenInRebellion Petition for survival: Jane Montgomery asked Lord Cornwallis for one thing: safe passage to America. Not land, not money — just the chance to escape retribution. Hers is one of many women’s petitions in the Rebellion Papers.

🔗 Read it here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
Francisco Goya Woman in Prison 1797-98 185 x 125 mm Burnished aquatint, touched with black chalk on paper Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid NAI CSO/REB/620/51/91 Jane Montgomery (Co. Down), memorial to Marquess Cornwallis [no date, post-1798]
November 13, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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Many thanks to @joelherman.bsky.social and @timvrti.bsky.social for organising, and to all who joined on the day!
November 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Great feature in historyireland.bsky.social by bsky.app/profile/mayn... Eamon Darcy on William Molyneux & the birth of #LocalHistory in Ireland.

👀 our Curated collection
www.virtualtreasury.ie/curated-coll...
📢 Shout out to funders bsky.app/profile/ria.ie
&
📷TCD Library bsky.app/profile/tcdd...
😊
Engraving of William Molyneux in full wig and white lace collar c. 1660s Image of the headline to Eamon Darcy's feature in History Ireland: 'A Heap of Rude Materials - William Molyneux and the birth of local Irish history in the age of empires.
November 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Enjoyed reading an expert article in History Ireland Nov/Dec 2025 (33:6) by @eneclann.bsky.social's Fiona Fitzsimons about Grand Jury records (One of our favourite sources 🙂)
And very kindly linking to our free downloadable guidebook:
People, Place and Power www.virtualtreasury.ie/publications 😀👍
November 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
🔔 WANTED — Dead or Alive! (1694)
A £50 reward offered for ten “Notorious Rebels and Traitors” in Kilkenny — or just bring the head. 😳

Join the VRTI Roadshow in Kilkenny on 25 Nov to see this chilling notice and explore how law, memory, and violence show up in the archives.
TNA SP 63/356/81 Proclamation by the lords justices and council: of a reward for the apprehension, dead or alive, of rebels, listed in detail, who have fled to the mountains and other places where they 'stand upon their keeping'.
November 11, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomenInRebellion Grief & defiance: Mary Ann McCracken’s letter after her brother’s execution is searing: a sister’s grief, a patriot’s outrage, and a refusal to forget.

Read her unflinching words here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
NAI CSO/REB/620/16/3/8 — Mary Ann McCracken to Thomas Russell, describing trial and execution of her brother Henry Joy McCracken [Wednesday, 18 July 1798]
November 6, 2025 at 1:05 PM
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Save the date! 📆 We are bringing the VRTI Roadshow to Kilkenny this month, with a special addition: the launch of Professor Keith Busby's new publication — The Statute of Kilkenny — published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

🗓️ Tues25 November 2025
🕠 6:45 – 9:00 PM
📍 Mayfair Library, Kilkenny
Source: L.Brown Collection
November 5, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
👻 🧙‍♀️🎃 Molyneux Papers (TCD MS 883): Examinations & depositions taken in Co. Antrim in 1710 respecting witches and witchcraft — including testimony from Mary Dunbar, who has been "in a most grievous and violent manner / tormented and afflicted with Witches".

www.virtualtreasury.ie/item/TCD-MS-...
October 31, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomeninRebellion — Intercepted love & politics: In 1797, a letter from Lady Pamela Fitzgerald to her husband Lord Edward was intercepted. It’s tender, witty, and full of republican camaraderie — proof that love and politics were entwined.

Read the letter here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
The Lady Edward FitzGerald, ARTIST: G. ROMNEY ENGRAVED BY: T. HOLLIS London Published in 1835 for the proprietor by Whittaker and co. NAI CSO/REB/620/15/3/18 (Pamela to Lord Edward Fitzgerald), Tuesday, 10 January... [Tuesday, 10 January 1797]
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
On Wednesday, 22 October 2025, the VRTI joined the Royal Irish Academy and the Irish Manuscripts Commission to launch the new Guild of St Anne Gold Seam, one of Dublin’s most important historical records.

You can read more about the collection here: virtualtreasury.ie/news/ria-imc...
From left to right: Barbara McCormack, RIA Librarian; Ciarán Wallace, VRTI Co-Director; John McCafferty, Chair of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. Image courtesy of Royal Irish Academy. From left to right: VRTI Associate Researcher Dr Theresa O'Byrne; VRTI Research Fellow Dr Lynn Kilgallon; VRTI Archival Research Assistant Sadhbh Dunne. Image courtesy of Royal Irish Academy. Colm Lennon, MRIA, addressing the audience in the RIA Library. Image: Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland.
October 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomeninRebellion Bella Martin started as a Belfast barmaid. By 1798, she was a Crown agent inside a rebel leader’s home, reporting on arms hidden under a chapel altar. Her world was dangerous — and morally murky.

Read more here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
Detail from Coffee House in Salisbury Market Place, Thomas Rowlandson, 1891 (Royal Museums Greenwich ID: PAF4936) Detail from NAI CSO/REB/620/38/222 -- Examination of Bella Martin (Co. Meath) as to activities of William Aylmer [Saturday, 23 June 1798]
October 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomeninRebellion Only one woman appears as the primary defendant in the court martial records of 1798–1801. Catharine Kelly’s trial in Clonmel was brief — but it shows how suspicion reached even into women’s lives.

Read her case here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
Detail from 'The Battle of Wexford in Ireland fought June 20th 1798' Coloured line engraving, published by G Thompson, August 1798. National Army Museum, Study collection, 1971-02-33-471-1 NAI CSO/REB/620/6/69/5 - Account of Court Martial of Catherine Kelly, Co. Tipperary [Thursday, 28 March 1799]
October 16, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
#WomeninRebellion April 1799: Margaret McIvers hides in a limekiln with a child as rebels kill her family. Months later, she stands in a Carlow court martial, her testimony shaping the fate of the accused.

Hear her voice here: virtualtreasury.ie/item/NAI-CSO...
NAI CSO/REB/620/5/58/54: Proceedings of Court Martial of John Whelan, Co. Carlow [Wednesday, 17 April 1799] Illustration from W.H. Maxwell's "History of the Irish rebellion in 1798 : with memoirs of the union, and Emmett's insurrection in 1803" (1854).
October 9, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
John's paper will introduce the NAISC (Normandy and Ireland Settlement Connections) project and share some early exciting findings which shed new light on medieval Dublin.
Trim Castle, Co. Meath. Source: Curious Ireland
October 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Lynn's paper will showcase the riches of medieval Dublin in the VRTI and provide an advance peek at a new Gold Seam: the Deeds of the Guild of St Anne, launching on 22 October @ria.ie.
October 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Our colleagues Lynn Kilgallon and @jmarshallmed.bsky.social will be presenting at tomorrow's 26th @fmdmedievaldublin.bsky.social Symposium as part of the Dublin Festival of History.
October 3, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
For too long, the 1798 Rebellion was told as a man’s story. But hidden in the Rebellion Papers are women’s voices that witnessed, resisted, and sometimes fought. Through a new weekly series curated by @timvrti.bsky.social, we're bringing them back into the light.
J. F. O'Hea. A Scout of '98. "The Yeos'!!!". drawn, printed and published by the Freeman's Journal, 1891. Source: National Library of Ireland
October 2, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
This Fri, 3 October at 2pm — 3rd and final talk in @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy's "Finding Ireland" online series: "Ireland's undiscovered past: the 1800s" from @gillianobrien.bsky.social. More info on how to join here:

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/eve...
Cork City Libraries, Cork CL GJ Professor Gillian O'Brien (https://www.gillianobrien.net/about)
September 29, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
This Fri, 26 Sept: Join @nejohnst.bsky.social, Head of Early Modern Records @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy, for "Ireland 1485–1798: colonial laboratory?"

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/eve...
Burt Castle, County Donegal, Ireland, 1601. Catalogue reference: TNA MPF 1/335 (2) image of Neil Johnston
September 22, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Great to see a good turnout at @tcdunit18.bsky.social for @cwallacedublin.bsky.social's talk on Wed 17th titled "30 June 1922 – Dublin’s biggest explosion? Recovering the lost Public Record Office of Ireland”. @historytcd.bsky.social
From left to right: Holly Ritchie, PhD researcher, Department of History TCD, Ciarán Wallace, Mary Colclough, Community Engagement Manager, Unit18.
September 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM
virtualtreasury.bsky.social
Here is the recently released conference programme!
September 16, 2025 at 11:34 AM